Media Release on behalf of Meetings & Events Australia

Meetings & Events Australia (MEA) is coordinating an industry survey to identify skills shortages. MEA has invited the Exhibition & Events Association of Australasia (EEAA) and the Australian Association of Convention Bureaux (AACB) to support the survey by distributing the questionnaire to their members. This will see that views from all sectors of the events industry are represented.

MEA Chief Executive Officer, Robyn Johnson says, “Maintaining the highest service levels is critical to ensuring the continued growth of the Australian events industry and protecting our reputation as one of the leading countries for professional event delivery”.

The survey will highlight perceived gaps in experience and skills so that training packages can be developed to help the industry appropriately, address shortfalls.

Andrew Heibl, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Association of Convention Bureaux says, “Australia will forever be competing on an uneven playing field when attracting international business events to our shores due to our geographic location in the world. However, we remain on everyone’s bucket list and have a reputation for delivering world-class events.”

“To maintain this competitive advantage, we must continue to lead with the professionalism of our workforce. This requires experienced and qualified professionals within all areas of the business events industry, from bidding and marketing creativity, to operations, logistics and technical expertise.”

“The current economic climate forces us to do more with less, which requires a strategic shift in focus to superior skills and qualifications.”

Joyce DiMascio, Chief Executive of the Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia (EEAA) has commended the collaboration between the industry Associations on the research project.

“By joining forces on this timely study, we aim to get a more holistic perspective of the skills needs of the business events sector. The more comprehensive the input, the more valuable the insights will be for the Australian business events sector,” Ms DiMascio said.

“We encourage the industry to complete the simple survey and so help us better understand how to service and support our Members, irrespective of which Association they belong to.”

Robyn Johnson says “MEA has taken a collaborative approach by working across the industry to explore what gaps there is in the industry so that we can develop programs and work with government and other agencies to fill this gap”.

The report on the outcomes of the survey will be announced at MEA’s National Conference 30 April – 2 May 2017.